Brit Insurance Design Awards is the Design Museum's annual exploration of the of the most innovative, interesting and forward looking designs produced over the last twelve months from around the world and celebrated in seven categories: Architecture, Transport, Graphics, Interactive, Product, Furniture and Fashion

What do the Big Brother logo, a school, Heathrow Terminal 5 Live Adverts and Obama’s campaign logo have in common?

They are all on the shortlist for the Brit Insurance Design Awards. Following the tremendous success of their inaugural year in 2008, Brit Insurance Design Awards and supporting Brit Insurance Designs of the Year exhibition return for their second year, making them an annual fixture on the design industry calendar.

The world’s most interesting and forward looking designs have been nominated by industry experts spanning seven categories: Architecture, Fashion, Furniture, Graphics, Interactive, Product and Transport, to be judged by a high profile panel, chaired by Alan Yentob and including the designer and environmentalist Karen Blincoe, and the
architect Peter Cook.

The shortlist will be on show at the Brit Insurance Designs of the Year Exhibition from 12 February until 14 June at the Design Museum in London. From this comprehensive list, the panel will decide the category winners in each of the seven disciplines to be announced at the end of February. These finalists will go forward to vie for the 2009 Brit Insurance Design of the Year, to be revealed at the Awards Dinner on18 March 2009.

Brit Insurance Design Awards recognise the important achievements in design over the past twelve months as well as bringing lesser known design triumphs to the fore. Public participation has also been encouraged this year, with a People’s Choice Vote open from 1 January 2009 and a blog for the general public to express their views at
http://www.designsoftheyear.com.

Deyan Sudjic, Director of the Design Museum said, “Design touches every aspect of our daily lives. This exciting shortlist reflects its impact on politics as well as fashion. It highlights great architecture, and smart technology. In the midst of economic chaos, creative thinking is more important than ever. Alan Yentob makes an excellent chair for an
international jury that is going to have its work cut out choosing winners.”

Brit Insurance Chief Executive Dane Douetil added, “Sustainability and efficiency are clearly growing in importance, underling the important role that intelligent design has in the reduction of risk. The shortlist for this year’s Brit Insurance Design Awards certainly lives up to the exceptional standards set by last year’s 100 nominees and last year’s winner, One Laptop per Child. We look forward to seeing which design the judges will choose from the very wide range on this year’s shortlist.”

Brit Insurance
Brit Insurance is a leading UK-domiciled general insurance and reinsurance group. Headquartered in London, it has regional offices across the UK and representative offices in Europe and Australia representing the Group’s FSA-regulated subsidiary Brit Insurance Limited and Brit’s leading Syndicate at the 300 year-old Lloyd’s insurance market.
The group is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250.
It insures businesses and individuals worldwide against more than 80
sub-classes of risks, including Property, Liability and Motor.
www.britinsurance.com